In her recent LA Times column, Patt Morrison spent half her essay pummeling a strawman: creationists who think the Smithsonian is hiding Noah’s ark. The other half she spent fear mongering: The creationist “brain snatchers,” the essay warns, “could be in anybody’s backyard tomorrow.” Like an aging boxer, Darwinism has taken to dodging the real challenger, intelligent design–according to which, certain features of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process like natural selection. Morrison eventually mentions intelligent design, but only to erect another strawman. “ID is a canny tactic,” she explains, ” . . . in which the Bible is an encoded science text.” Her column attacked the creationist museum but also the ID Read More ›

While the rest of the country worries about terrorists who try to blow up people here and abroad, the editorialists at the Boston Globe worry about an invasion by… American creationists. Today the Globe is running an overwrought editorial with the hysterical title “Creationists at the gate” — conjuring up images of stampeding hordes of vandals and visigoths about to overrun civilized society. It is becoming harder and harder to lampoon the liberal newsmedia on the evolution issue, because their hysteria apparently knows no bounds. If the liberal media want to be taken more seriously by the majority of Americans, they might start by trying to base their opinions on facts rather than fantasies. For example, the Globe repeatedly warns Read More ›

As noted in a previous post, Time’s recent article about intelligent design reads more like an editorial than a news report. Here is an itemized list of some of the ways Time slanted and misreported its story:

Expect David Klinghoffer’s op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal — discussing institutionalized bias at the Smithsonian and the attacks upon scientist Richard Sternberg — to make waves in the blogosphere. One can already read posts with comments discussing the story at Conservative Philosopher and Southern Appeal. Also be sure to check out the comments at IDEA Center. Sense of Soot is skeptical of ID’s claims, but nonetheless makes the important observation that: “the fear of even approaching the issue scientifically can make blind naysayers of critical thinkers . . . and that’s a crying shame.” Coming from a different perspective on ID is Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, who concludes his lengthy post with a note of optimism: while scientific revolutions Read More ›